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EDMONTON — There’s little room to hide when you’re an NHL defenceman — every good play goes into the coaches’ memory bank and every mistake is recorded on video — especially when you’re big enough to double-dribble Joey Moss.

So what about Keith Aulie, who stands six-foot-six, 228 pounds?

Where does he stand with Edmonton Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins? Clearly, he has longer rope than some because he played briefly for Eakins with the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies, and fuzzingly you would think he has a better shot at the No. 7 spot on the back-end than Darnell Nurse, who can only go back to junior not minor pro, and Oscar Klefbom, who might benefit from playing on the top pair with AHL Oklahoma City than sitting by the popcorn machine in the Rexall Place press box to start the NHL season as a spare defenceman.

But Aulie, who was signed to a one-way, $800,000 contract July 1 after an injury-plagued season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, didn’t wow anybody in his first exhibition against Calgary Flames Sunday night. He looked tentative, like his confidence needs buffing.

But he’ll be on the blue-line again in Winnipeg on Wednesday, paired with Justin Schultz, against the Jets. Nurse and Klefbom are also making the plane ride to Winnipeg, but the No. 7 job is Aulie’s to lose, really, with Schultz, Andrew Ference, Jeff Petry, Mark Fayne, Nikita Nikitin and Martin Marincin likely the top six, although Petry hurt his shoulder in the first team scrimmage on Friday and is still out.

Aulie has played 136 NHL games, and while the Oilers could just as easily have brought in or signed an older abrasive guy like, say, Sheldon Brookbank or a middleweight puck-mover, power play pointsman such as Mike Kostka or Michael Hunwick, they feel that Aulie has more upside.

There is that; it’s look up, way up, when seeing Aulie.

“Keith’s in a battle here. We have decisions to make on the back-end, but Keith is an NHL player, and if we can adjust his steering wheel a little bit, he’s got some big upside,” said Eakins, who doesn’t feel Aulie has the upper-hand on the younger Nurse and Klefbom. “Listen, we want the guys who can play for us (now). Whoever decides to be here will be here.”

Eakins will leave the machinations of junior eligibility (Nurse) and the decisions about playing time vis-à-vis Oklahoma City or Edmonton (Klefbom) to general manager Craig MacTavish. All he knows is Aulie has the tools.

“I have a history with this kid, coaching him for a short amount of time and I think he’s been banged around in a few organizations (Toronto, Tampa) and maybe lost some of his confidence,” Eakins said. “But he’s a big man who can really move his feet. We just have to get him back to the everyday rigours of being relied on.”

“I’ve done this a couple of times now (go to a new team; he was drafted by Calgary, but traded to the Leafs as part of the Dion Phaneuf deal, then to Tampa for forward Carter Ashton). It’s a feeling out process,” said Aulie. “I was OK (against Calgary). First game. You’re trying to show people what you can do. I think I did that and it’s about building on that. I want to be hard to play against, be out against top players, getting the puck to guys like Taylor Hall quickly and let them skate with it.”

Aulie wants to be a top six guy, not a seventh, actually.

“That was my only goal this summer, showing the Oilers what I can do. It’s a matter of doing it and staying healthy,” said Aulie, whose 2013-2014 season in Tampa was only 15 games because he was injured twice.

He broke his hand on a harmless hit and got tripped up and fell into the boards, separating his shoulder. The Lightning also had eight defencemen on the roster, including the six-foot-eight Andrej Sustr.

“Keith has to come in with the mindset that the past is gone, the ups and downs over the past few years are over with,” Eakins said. “He can’t do anything about that. He has to say ‘I’m going to be great today.”

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